Soybean, a legume, has become the world's primary source of seed oil and seed protein. In addition, its utilization is being expanded to the industrial, manufacturing and pharmaceutical sectors. Soybean productivity is a vital agricultural and economic consideration. Soybean contains saturated fatty acids, such as palmitic and stearic acids. Studies have associated the increased of intake of saturated fatty acids with increased serum cholesterol in the blood. The increased serum cholesterol in turn has been associated with increased risk for coronary heart disease. Decreasing soybean concentrations of saturated fatty acids will make the soybean healthier for the purposes of human consumption as related to coronary heart disease.
Palmitic acid (palmitate) is one of the significant saturated fatty acids found in soybean products. The nomenclature refers to palmitate as 16:0, meaning it is a fatty acid containing 16 carbon atoms and 0 double bonds. The normal value for palmitate is 11% in soybeans. This exceeds the recommended intake. A reduction in saturated fatty acid content will reduce the negative health effects stemming from the high levels of saturated fats found in soybeans.
In soybeans the concentration of saturated fatty acids has been associated with two loci, namely Fap1 and Fap3 where alternative alleles (i.e. non-wild-type) confer phenotypic variation of fatty acid levels in seeds. The Fap3 locus is also known as FatB1 and Fap-nc. Studies have correlated the control and manipulation of particular alleles at these two loci with a decrease in saturated fatty acid content. The description of which allele of Fap 3 (also known as FatB1a or Fap-nc) causes this decrease is a significant advance to generate soybean lines containing lower concentrations of fatty acids.